hewing a beam the German way

[DoctorSpoon]

yes, complete with authentic hats, trousers etc ... also the Japanese guy makes a brief reappearance this time with footwear
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j506cXGvOPg

 

[demographic]

Fair amount of wastage before they used saws I suppose.

Still its an interesting clip, like the side axes.

 

[robin wood]

Fair amount of wastage before they used saws I suppose.

Still its an interesting clip, like the side axes.

No there is no wastage at all simply making several products at once, firewood, kindling and a beam. The bulk of what is removed is sapwood and beams continued to be hewn long after saws were around. Compared to the hassle involved in sawing hewing is very practical for small scale projects. The joists in my Peak District barn/workshop were hewn little more than 100 years ago.

 

[mr dazzler]

I think hewing is more energy efficient any way its excelent to do addicitve actually. Plus its not screaming at you as a chiansaw mill or mobile band saw would. you have to fell the trees drag them to a saw mill, then drag them somewhere else. Plus sawing isnt always that eficient any way, they can only put reasonaby straight logs through they are fussy what they take and what they reject, if you hew from smaller trees or use sections of crooked ones you can get usable cruck's/posts/beam's/braces/rafter's etc from crap, and even if a beam follow's the grain by hewing, and isnt straight as a ruler, its still usable (and stronger than if it was sawn), in fact that is the beauty of french and englyshe scrybe carepntry, you can sucessully joint wonky wany timber's to create a sound cohesive structure, you arent forced to use PSE timbers like the yanke lad's do. Wall studs were often made from cleft chestnut or oak coppice pole's.
I once owned a house in Normandy, some beams were hewn, some were pit sawn and some were circular sawn

 

[Ogri the trog]

No there is no wastage at all simply making several products at once, firewood, kindling and a beam.

I think hewing is more energy efficient any way its excelent to do addicitve actually.

Two comments that bolster each others relevance,
By definition, a saw would remove a huge unweidly slab of sapwood and bark that would necessitate further work to make it burnable - in contrast hewing removes the same "waste" in a ready to use form!

Ogri the trog